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ATI 690G resolution errors

01-30-2008, 03:27 PM

I have worked for 3 nights trying to change resolution so I can use a new HP w2207 monitor, 1680x1050, in Mint Linux (Ubuntu Gutsy). Nothing seems to allow me to change resoluition. I actually have 2 matching monitors, but am only testing with one until/if I can make it work.

Below is the type of errors that I am seeing in the logs, there are no apparent errors during installation. Not all are video errors, but you get the idea. I can change resolution/video card settings, press test and all I get is garbage a patterned garbage display screen. When I return from testing, resolution is always reset to 800x600. I can not change any setting in the resolution for any monitor or ATI driver mesa or fglrx, all leave the same patterned garbage display screen. I tried to run reconfigure too and it also left me with a borked screen display. I used the instructions from ATI and the Gutsy installation notes. FGLRX seems to install without errors but when I try to changed resoltuions it breaks. My only solution now is to use a xorg.conf with 1280x1024 from when I first installed Mint, anyhting else breaks the video. Suggestions? Nvidia time?

I solved the problem. First, I noticed that Mint Daryna was complaining about 915 and 810 Intel video conflicts so I uninstalled them in Synaptic, not needed for AMD 690G. These were installed by default.

I finally realized that Envy (or synaptic) was installing older versions of fglrx that evidently limits the resolution to 1280x1024.

I reinstalled the latest ATI driver manually according to the Ubuntu install guide. NEVER use the "Test" button when choosing displays, all tests will show corrupt screens, even though just clicking on OK works. Test wasted a lot of time. After some more testing and choosing monitors I did get it working in 1440x900, but 1680x1050 was not an option. More trial and error with choosing monitors finally got 1680x1050. It seems flaky when selecting monitors and resolutions sometimes, but 1680x1050 was finally there on reboot. There are no errors in the logs now.

New problems, when I tried clicked on Quit in the Mint Daryna menu, the system froze on a black screen. Searching here suggested disabling a daemon, which I have done but not reboooted yet. I also automatically get kicked out of the desktop, back to logon screen, if I try to run glxgears now. Scrolling in Firefox is slow.

I'm sorry, but buying 2 new widescreen monitors and resetting the resolution shouldn't be this difficult. I haven't even pulled the second monitor out of the box to try it yet. This stuff may seem easy or second nature to others who do this a lot, but even though I've used Linux for a long time, I don't usually do a lot with resetting video. It took 4 nights to figure out what was going on and how to get it working. I'm not sure I'm looking forward to instaling the next set of "revised" video drivers.

Comment

Sorry, I was working on the PC last trying to get a dual monitor "extended" desktop working and kinda wiped out the settings. The whole PC is seriously slow and may need to be wiped and a fresh install.

This whole concept of the xorg.conf hacking by hand needs to die.

Comment

I have an update. After spending nights until 1-2am nightly this week reading and sifting through a lot of BS, I removed all video software updates in Mint Daryna (Ubuntu Gutsy) and basically started from scratch again this morning with the default vesa drivers. I thought I actually killed Mint a couple times.

This article provided info about the X windows system so I could at least basically understand what the terminology is. Funny how I've used Linux for years, Solaris at work, but never looked at this uhh, "stuff" before, no time.

I created a new xorg.conf that seemed to make sense to me except the resolution was wrong. I tried some of the other crap settings online and found that many settings must be obsolete because aticonfig said to remove them.

I followed most of the doc here about installing Catalyst 8.1 manually:

I skipped everything after sudo aticonfig --initial, plus a few other earlier commands I didn't need.

The first time I installed fglrx, it was with one monitor. It seemed to install clean 1680x1050, no errors, but scrolling and opening apps was painfully slow. ATI CCC would crash when starting.

Today I reinstalled the 8.1 drivers/CCC. I was still getting some message about a slight problem with my xorg.conf from the aticonf but forged ahead anyway. I was surprised when I finished and the PC actually rebooted into dual monitor 1680x1050 clone mode. I was floored when Firefox scrolled fast, just like with the default Mesa driver. Apps open very fast too. WTF? I clicked on CCC and it actually ran fine, WOW. I was looking at CCC for the first time in my life, hey I'm an old Nvidia guy. It knew I had 2 monitors on CCC display manager, ok. I opened Display Modes and it was on Clone, changed to Big Desktop and something happened. I about soiled my pants, it was running in extended mode at 3360x1080.

Not once today did I ever open the dreaded screens and graphics "tool" for this, glxgears even runs now instead of crashing too!! This is the info with a lot of other stuff running in the background, don't know if it matters.

1) the computer still starts in clone mode by default and I need to click on CCC and enable the Big Desktop on the fly, no graphics restart needed. It would be nice if this was default, but it is easy so I can live with it while researching a permanent fix.

2) MPG movies do NOT play. I may need to run some more commands out of the HOWTO to fix it.

Comment

Sorry, I was working on the PC last trying to get a dual monitor "extended" desktop working and kinda wiped out the settings. The whole PC is seriously slow and may need to be wiped and a fresh install.

This whole concept of the xorg.conf hacking by hand needs to die.

i think the opposite. and this since sax2 has decided to break my xorg.conf some time ago. i can assure you that knowing what the system will read and use as config and what the options would do is better than just using some graphical tool that can do harm. but i'm also aware that for normal users this is not the right way of doing things and that a good utility that would set up everything via gui would also be good. also maybe it's time to have one utility that is common and the default for every linux distro. i think that in that way if one ask for help for ubuntu he could use help for the same thing on suse. the linux fragmentation is still its greater weakness when compared to windows or osx.